Posts Tagged ‘BRAC’

The Senate Armed Services Committee gets its turn to address the Pentagon’s plans for trimming force structure, eliminating weapons systems, cutting military pay and compensation, and holding a new BRAC round when it marks up its version of the fiscal 2015 defense authorization bill this week. On Tuesday, the Readiness and Management Support Subcommittee will mark up its portion of the annual defense policy measure, with the full committee taking up the legislation starting Wednesday. Many decisions committee members make this week will echo those the House made earlier this month …

Suffering from one of the nation’s highest unemployment rates at the time the Riverbank Army Ammunition Plant closed in 2010, the city of Riverbank, Calif., could not afford any further economic setbacks as it began to carry out the redevelopment plan which called for retaining the site’s light industrial focus with a “green” twist. Four short years later, the mixed-use business park located in the heart of California’s Central Valley has quadrupled its number of tenants, and now is home to 36 companies employing 300 people with an additional 75 workers anticipated to be hired later this year. The Riverbank Industrial Complex generates a $31 million local economic impact, almost four times its annual economic contribution prior to closure …

Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper (D) signed two bills Wednesday intended to better position the state’s military installations in a future base closure round. House Bill 1351 adds the mission of supporting and promoting the military, primarily through lobbying the federal government, to the role of the Colorado Office of Economic Development. About $120,000 was included in the state budget for a new staff position which could be used to carry out the new function …

Climate change impacts such as sea-level rise and drought will threaten military infrastructure and their host communities, pointing to the need to take into account environmental changes in future basing decisions, according to a new report from a government-funded military research organization. “The challenge for the U.S. military is not simple: reduce force size, increase capabilities and readiness, fix our bases so climate change will not undermine our training and deployment activities — all in the context of a constrained budget …

Barnes Air National Guard Base, Mass., should reap long-term benefits from several state initiatives, including $9 million in funding for the base’s runway and an aviation program at a vocational high school, officials said Monday at a community forum hosted by the state Military Asset and Security Strategy Task Force. The runway funding for Barnes, a joint use airport, was made possible by the landmark $177 million bond bill Gov. Deval Patrick (D) signed into law earlier this year …

Language approved by the House Armed Services Committee last week calling for a comprehensive assessment of the need for additional base closures and realignments could provide the Pentagon a jump on a new BRAC round, according to John Conger, acting deputy undersecretary of defense for installations and environment. “They have given us the preamble pieces,” Conger told American Forces Press Service. “All of which take time and if we execute them, all will allow a BRAC authorization on a shorter timetable.”

The Army shortly will begin a vapor intrusion study outside Fort Gillem’s northern and southern borders to determine whether vapors generated by groundwater contaminants have seeped into nearby homes. The tests are being conducted at the request of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in conjunction with the Army’s planned transfer of the post, located outside of Atlanta, reported the Clayton News Daily. “What we’re trying to do is make sure there are no health risks with the groundwater contamination coming off of the installation,” Owen Nuttall, the Army’s site manager and environmental coordinator for the post, said last week. Officials previously confirmed the groundwater beneath the neighborhoods north and south of Gillem became contaminated from landfills on the post. Samples will be taken during the summer and winter with a small canister that will be placed on residential properties for three days.

New Jersey Lt. Governor Kim Guadagno (R) on Friday launched a statewide Military Installation Growth and Development Task Force, a move designed to ensure the long-term growth and viability of the state’s military bases and Coast Guard installations. The task force’s primary objectives will be to organize a broad-based coalition — including elected officials at the local, state and federal level, as well as industry leaders, veterans and concerned citizens — to promote the state’s military installations; assist in the “economic fortification” of the state’s bases by leveraging the resources of the New Jersey Partnership for Action to help retain and attract missions to New Jersey …

The House Armed Services Committee approved language in the fiscal 2015 defense authorization bill rejecting the Pentagon’s request to hold a BRAC round in 2017 during its day-long markup Wednesday of the annual policy measure. The vote was set in motion last week when the Readiness Subcommittee included a prohibition on conducting additional base closure rounds in its portion of the bill, and reinforced when Committee Chairman Buck McKeon (R-Calif.) endorsed the ban on new BRACs earlier this week. At the same time the bill, which still was being debated Wednesday night, includes language calling for DOD to prepare a comprehensive assessment of the need for additional base closures — a possible first step toward a new BRAC …

An amendment that Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.), the ranking member of the House Armed Services Committee, plans to offer to the fiscal 2015 defense authorization bill approving a new BRAC round will call for a variety of reforms intended to address lawmakers’ most common criticisms of the base closure process. “Given that the last BRAC round transformed more than it closed and has cost more and saved less than original estimates, members of Congress have justifiable reservations about giving the Department of Defense authority to conduct another round …